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Lia Morales, an attentive sixth grader, smiles generously and stifles a few giggles behind a hand started by glittering nail polish as she talks to her parents and talks about her love of table tennis. But when she raises the paddle, this frivolous girl seems to disappear when she takes an aggressive stance at the table, her mouth set on a certain line and her eyes open, focusing on just one thing: the ball.
A 12-year-old student at Harlandale Middle School rises in the ranks of American table tennis.
What began about 20 months ago as a casual play in a library of mission offices near his home has become fully dedicated to the sport, even though he has to travel to face his peers.
I’m the only kid in San Antonio who really plays table tennis, so I play mostly against adults, Lia said with a laugh.
When he started playing, the older men he played against only considered him a cute kid, but his trajectory since then has been explosive.
His parents said he quickly flew past his friends ’expertise at the library and started beating them regularly. That’s when his parents realized they had to find a coach.
Anna Vlad Farcas, who says Lias has made progress since she started working with him. As his skills grow, he has traveled to tournaments in Las Vegas, Ohio and Florida.
He is getting better. He loves it, ”he said. “He always comes back and wants to develop more.
Rapid rise
Farcas said some athletes can progress from a basic rating of 400 to 10 or 15 years, which means they understand the basic rules of the game, to a rating of 1900, which means they have reached an advanced level of play.
Currently, the Lias rating is around 1,800, Farcas said after less than two years of playing, and he is so young that he has almost no limit. Access to the national team and ultimately to the Olympic team are among his goals that Farcas believes are achievable.
I like the challenge, Lia said. I liked how hard it was because I was able to pick up most sports pretty quickly, but this took longer.
Before table tennis, his parents said he tried baseball, football, cheerleading and dancing, but table tennis has sparked a whole new kind of discipline and driving in Lia. At the same time, his parents describe him as a serious student who puts scientists ahead of the sport.
He had all the A’s. He’s never had a B in his life, and he’s proud of that, ”said Frank Morales of Lia, who has three adult siblings.
Muscle memory
Farcas said the challenge of table tennis attracts many players to the sport.
It’s so hard because the ball is so small and has so many wheels, so fast that it requires good reflexes, Farcas said. There are just a lot of ups and downs, and I think it’s just so unpredictable why people like it because it’s a challenge.
He said he admired Lias’ patience and perseverance at such a young age.
It requires a lot of commitment, Farcas said. Table tennis is not like any other sport. You can’t just be talented. You can be talented, but it has a lot of muscle memory, a lot of repetition, it takes a lot of time.
According to his parents, his commitment to the sport has become so all-encompassing that they have had to pull back and set boundaries.
From Monday to Thursday, Frank Morales leaves work, picks up Lia from school, and drives to his Southside home to prepare a hasty dinner and change. He then picks up his wife’s job from downtown, and they head to the San Antonio Table Tennis Club on the Northeast, where Lia trains for three hours. He also asked to go on the weekends for a while.
Eventually we said: We can’t go to the club on Saturdays and Sundays, his father said. It has to be family time.
12th birthday party
Lia turned 12 this week and wanted her birthday party at a club where members have become some of their daughter’s closest friends.
He made so many friends, even though he is the youngest and youngest, ”Frank Morales said. “But everyone treats her like a little sister, like a niece.”
Farcas, who is president of the table tennis club, hopes that Lia’s encouragement of sports will increase community involvement and interest in table tennis. He came to San Antonio from Romania three years ago and is only 21 years old, but he has already helped move the club to a new, bigger place and oversaw the growth in membership from about 50 monthly members to about 130.
The companionship of the table tennis club is one of the things Morales believes will eventually keep his daughter and so many other players coming back from day to day.
The environment, the table tennis community, is another reason he loves it, he said. It’s like our other family here, it really is. We really love many of the men here. It was like seeing our family when we came here.
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Sources 2/ https://sanantonioreport.org/12-year-old-table-tennis-phenom/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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